Getting Closer

We are still not quite where we want to be and haven’t reached our goal of Gold but we are getting closer each day. This past weekend we earned another silver medal. Our nemesis is Hamilton Transway as they are the only regulation team to beat us so far this year. We lost by 9 on Friday evening and by 13 on Sunday in the Gold medal game. Despite the score difference Sunday’s game displayed a much better team effort from all. I knew going into the season that Transway would be our main competitor and they are living up to my expectations. We will continue to see them in at least two more tournaments with the final tournament being the provincial championship so they are on our radar as we are on theirs.

Our first game Friday evening was described by some spectators as if the  girls were playing as a group who were just coming off having the flu. From a coaching perspective it was frustrating as we were very close to obtaining victory but we did not bring our complete mental game to the table both from a player point of view and also from the coaching staff. Our offensive game was flowing nicely but our main concern was our defense, or should I say defensive breakdowns. We had too many mental lapses on our defensive assignments and versus a quality team they made us pay for each of our mistakes. We also failed to execute on the few set plays that we have. We run a fluid offense but have set plays for inbounds and we need to clear execution of these sets for success. On the coaching side we admittedly failed to anticipate a full court press and a change in their defensive scheme and as a result we did not make the needed adjustments. Needless to say we not very happy at the end of that game. In fact the thoughts of that particular game lasted with me well into the next day which is something that use to happen in the past but has been uncommon in the past few years.

The Saturday games proved to be much different. We started off our day by having a long talk with the team prior to our game. We emphasized that we as coaches made mistakes and took ownership for our actions. We also addressed the issue of being mentally focused and accountable for everyone. It is ironic because I just finished booking our next session with our Performance consultant for later in the month to concentrate on FOCUS. The end result was that we were able to come out and play two strong games and move ourselves into position to compete for the Gold medal on Sunday.

The Gold Medal game can be compared to the Super Bowl. Defense and turnovers being the difference makers. Our defense was phenomenal but we had way too many turnovers which ultimately cost us the game. We were flat out beat by their full court press and while we were able to break it on the front end we suffered turnovers in the back end. Press break and foul shooting were our downfall. Needless to say our next couple practices will be working on these two areas. Repetition, repetition, repetition.

It should also be noted that we were down a couple players this weekend and that most definitely had a negative effect on us as we could have used them on Sunday. I don’t use their absence as an excuse as the players present must be able to fill the gaps but it did play a factor.

Overall, we are making strides and learning a lot along our journey.